Archives for July 2015

A super PAC set up to support Governor Scott Walker’s 2016 presidential bid raised almost $20 million in the first few months since it was created.

According to a federal filing on Friday, the Unintimidated PAC raised the money between April 16 and June 30. Major donors included $5 million from Diane Hendricks, a Beloit billionaire, and a series of donations from the Ricketts family, which owns the Chicago Cubs. Combined, they provided about half of the money taken in during the reporting period.

The Unintimidated PAC was started by several of Walker’s former top campaign officials earlier this year, before he officially entered the race. It draws its name from Walker’s 2013 book about his battle over collective bargaining legislation, which was titled “Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge.”

A new report from the state Government Accountability Board shows there were a large number of disability access problems at polling places around the state during the last two years.

The GAB inspected more than 800 polling places around the state in 48 of 72 counties, uncovering about 4,000 accessibility problems. Agency spokesman Reid Magney says those ranged from small issues, such as print on signs that was too small to read, to larger problems, such as having no tables at wheelchair height. About 42 percent of the violations were serious enough that they could have have hindered a disabled voter’s ability to independently and privately cast a ballot.

The number of issues did drop from the previous round of checks, from an average of 6.5 per polling place in 2013 to 4.9 per location during the 2014-15 cycle.

Magney says local clerks are notified of the problems, and the state works with them to develop a plan to address the issues. In most cases, he says they are relatively simple and inexpensive to fix.

Justice David Prosser waves to supporters during his 2011 reelection campaign. (Photo: WRN)

Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser is defending his decision to join the decision to end a controversial John Doe investigation, which had been looking into possible illegal coordination between Governor Scott Walker’s 2012 recall election campaign and conservative groups.

Prosser was among the 4-2 majority which halted the probe earlier this month. He’s faced criticism, and was even asked to recuse himself from the case by the special prosecutor, because he benefitted from millions of dollars during his 2011 reelection campaign, which came from some of the targets of the John Doe.

A similar recusal request was made of Justice Michael Gableman, who has not released a response.

In letter dated July 29, Prosser laid out the reasoning behind his decision to stay on the case, noting that Supreme Court rules do not require him to step down just because of ties to defendants. Prosser wrote, “The rules are grounded in the reality that the law must permit contributions from people and entities who may have cases before the court because some attorneys and some entities are nearly always before the court.”

Prosser also noted the circumstances surrounding his highly contentious reelection campaign, which came right after the massive debate over Governor Walker’s collective bargaining legislation and was seen by many as a referendum on that policy.

Prosser faced a challenge from JoAnne Kloppenburg, in a race that ultimately resulted in a statewide recount. Millions of dollars were spent on outside ads benefitting both candidates, and Prosser points out that a decision to take public financing limited his own ability to respond. “While it can be argued that independent communications supporting my campaign were “significant and disproportionate,” there was no alternative under Wisconsin law for people who believed I had done a good job and wanted me to continue,” he wrote.

Prosser’s defense is itself drawing criticism. Matt Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign called it a “pathetic” defense, and noted that Prosser even provided more evidence to support the arguments for why he should have stepped away from the case. Rothschild wrote “Justice Prosser’s letter is long on self-pity and self-justification but short on propriety and legal reasoning. It’s an embarrassment upon an embarrassment.”

Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker is not ruling out the possibility a clear winner will fail to emerge after next year’s primaries and caucuses around the country and delegates at the GOP’s 2016 national convention will wind up picking the party’s White House nominee.

“It’s possible. I mean, it’s a great field, a lot of great candidates…Sooner or later it will be easier to tell how many are not running in the Republican field than those that are,” Walker joked over the noon-hour during an interview on KMA Radio.

Walker, who is the governor of Wisconsin, said he will not “speak ill” of his Republican competitors, but he’s telling audiences he’s different from his rivals because he’s both a “doer” and a “fighter.”

“I just didn’t win three elections in four years in a blue state,” Walker said. “I won on the issues that people care about.”

Walker’s most high-profile fight was his successful effort to roll back the collective bargaining rights of unions the represent government employees.

“Unions are just fine. What we did is we took on the big government union bosses and we put the power back firmly into the hands of the hardworking taxpayers,” Walker said today. “That was good for the taxpayers. It was pro-worker.”

Walker signed a “right to work” law in Wisconsin early this year. It forbids organized labor from forcing non-union workers to pay union dues or fees in a workplace where employees have voted to unionize. Walker is on a campaign swing through southwest Iowa today, with stops scheduled in five counties.

(Reporting in Shenandoah by Chuck Morris of KMA Radio; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson/Photo by Brent Barnett,KMA)

Changes are coming to how the state Department of Natural Resources operates. Agency officials rolled out a reorganization plan for workers earlier this week, which involves condensing the current six DNR divisions into five. It also includes splitting off some services that are used to review business projects into a single entity.

Deputy Secretary Kurt Thiede says the changes are about improving efficiency at the agency and are the result of a review process not unlike what happens in the private sector. “Organizations that want to be successful in their operations, from time to time, will take a look at their structure, as well as their processes and systems, and try to find efficiencies and figure out ways that they can better align and integrate their functions.”

Environmental groups are concerned that the move could weaken enforcement efforts though — especially with a plan to split up watershed management and water quality monitoring. Clean Wisconsin government affairs director Amber Meyer Smith says it could mark a move away from the “integrated approach” the DNR has long taken to environmental issues. She says that ensured related issues, such as clean water and fish management, were managed under the same principles.

The DNR has also seen numerous staffing cuts in the last decade, with the most recent state budget trimming about 60 positions, several of which were in the science division. Smith admits that could have just as much of an impact on the work of the DNR as a new structure for the agency. She notes the agency is facing new challenges with the expansion of frac sand mining, agricultural runoff, and many other issues they just don’t have the resources to address. She says it’s part of an “ongoing challenge” facing natural resources management in the state.

Thiede contends the DNR will still “enforce the law.” He says the effort is really about “running a more efficient organization…and focusing in on our core work.”

The body of a Maryland man who went missing Wednesday morning in Shawano Lake has been located. Shawano County Sheriff Adam Bieber said the body of 45-year-old Norman Robertson was spotted by a local businessman who had gone up in a plane to help in the search.

Robertson’s body was located east of Schumacher’s Island, which is not near the search area on the southwest side of the lake.

Robertson was from Kensington, Maryland, and had been in the area for a family reunion. A search for Robertson had been underway, after he jumped into the lake when his 10-year-old son fell into the water trying to climb into the family’s pontoon boat. That was around 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Deputies said high winds pushed the boat away from the father and son, while efforts to reconnect were hampered when a tow rope became stuck in the boat’s propeller. The boy was able to swim to a shallow area of the lake, where he was rescued by emergency personnel.

Madison’s mayor proposes an ordinance that would restrict use of downtown benches by the city’s homeless population. “When we’re good at it, in terms of enforcement, it’s a joy to see what our downtown looks like,” Soglin told WIBA. But too often, that’s not the case. “This morning, I counted 6 benches, 100 percent occupied by a homeless individual who was nodding out, storing their goods, and depriving the rest of that public from using that stuff.

Soglin is proposing a Downtown Pedestrian Protection Ordinance. It would limit use of benches, ban sitting, lying, or lodging on public rights of way. The prohibition would run from 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. for any city office properties, and from 5:30 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. for the rest of the downtown. The Mayor can expect plenty of opposition from the City Council, where alders recently overrode his veto to declare the homeless a “protected class” in Madison.

“We’ve got members of the public saying, “we’d like a little space downtown,'” Soglin told WIBA. “The answer we’re getting is ‘I’m homeless, I’m a protected class, I can do whatever I want. You can’t touch me.’ I’ve had those exact words said to me as I’ve come out of the city-county building, which is out of control.”

The proposed ordinance will need approval from the Madison Common Council to take effect. Soglin plans to introduce it for referral, but not debate, at next Tuesday’s meeting.

Governor Scott Walker has ordered a special election to fill a vacant seat in the state Assembly.

Republican Chris Kapenga of Delafield is resigning from the chamber, after winning a special election last week for an open seat in the state Senate. That spot belonged to Republican Paul Farrow, who left the Senate to focus on his job as Waukesha County executive, which he was elected to earlier this spring.

An executive order issued on Wednesday calls for a special election to be held on September 29. Nomination papers will be due by August 4 and, if needed, there will be a primary election on September 1.

The 99th Assembly District covers portions of Republican-leaning Waukesha County.

Wisconsin recorded its third plane crash in a week, after a small pirvate aircraft burst into flames Wednesday after crashing on Milwaukee’s northwest side. The single-engine plane crashed just after 6 p.m. at Milwaukee’s Timmermann Airport.

Killed in the crash were the chief operating officer of Summit Partners, a Boston capital investment firm, and his daughter. The firm released a statement announcing the death of Joseph Trustey and daughter Anna, saying the pair were traveling to Wisconsin for a college visit tour.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Eight people have died in Wisconsin plane crashes this past week. Two Kentucky men were killed last weekend when a home-built plane crashed in Kenosha County on its way to the E-A-A show in Oshkosh. On Monday night, four Hudson area men were killed when their plane crashed and burned in Polk County on the way to a golf outing.

Wisconsin’s highly touted open records law was the subject of a day long summit held in Madison on Wednesday. The event was hosted by Attorney General Brad Schimel, who told attendees that “messing with open government laws is like touching the third rail.” The AG was referring to the controversial effort by Republican legislative leaders to slip language into the state budget that would have hamstrung the public’s ability to access actions taken by state and local governments. That language was quickly deleted after bipartisan blowback. Wednesday’s summit was scheduled before the legislative action.

Participants addressed the government oversight and criminal justice aspects of open records in Wisconsin. Jill Karofsky is Executive Director of the state Office of Crime Victim Services. “There’s a constitutional right to privacy that victims have,” Karofsky said. “I absolutely recognize the need to disclose these records, so that all of us are able to monitor our government,” she said. “We want to do that because it makes us safer, it makes our government better. But disclosing the identity of crime victims doesn’t do that. It makes us less safe.”

Schimel said the law – originally written in the 1980s – provides little guidance on how authorities should respond to requests for video recorded by police body cams, when those recordings show people who are not criminal suspects. “I think we have a long way to go before we determine where the lines are, between what is necessary monitoring of government activity and necessary protection of privacy rights of citizens.” Schimel said.

WisPolitics.com President Jeff Mayers commented on the recent attempt by GOP lawmakers to roll back open records. “I disagree with the presumption that the state open records law needs to be rewritten or needs to be overhauled,” Mayers said. “Maybe it needs to be tweaked a little bit, but it’s proven to be very flexible.”

Schimel indicated that some tweaks may be acceptable, concerning the “deliberative process” of arriving at legislation. “There are some aspects that I do think the law could address, permitting people within an agency to exchange ideas before that becomes the final public document,” he said. “Ultimately it’s going to be up to the legislature to decide how to craft that.”